Creating Value

Publishing online for more than ten years, VCR continues to support innovative value-created furniture manufacturing in Canada and beyond. If "we are what we eat" applies to us as individuals, then VCR takes the view that as a society "we are what we make."

Advocates of globalization argue that it is inconsequential where a product is made, provided it is well-designed and/or produced at the lowest cost. Though economies of scale have their place in the global market (not every city can justify producing its own transit vehicles), regional production is a viable alternative when all the enviromental costs of globalized production are included in the bottom line.

To take the food analogy another step, we are becoming more aware of the negative costs of global agri-business, which may not be evident on the grocery store receipt. This awareness has spawned the "think globally and grow locally" attitude in food production. Unfortunately, a comparable action cannot be applied easily to furniture manufacturing because of the wide variety of technologies and materials involved. However, only zealots expect simplistic black or white solutions - it is okay to be grey at times. Trade between regions still has its place provided that creativity and value - where the bottom line is determined by cultural and environmental factors - play the dominent role.

Typical commodity products

In Canada, we had a brief glimpse of the potential of local manufacturing in the 1940s and 1950s, as a result of technological and societal changes brought about by the Second World War. Unfortunately, when transportation of goods became more economical in the 1960s and 1970s, this Renaissance faded, and Canada became entrenched in its role as supplier of raw materials and minimaly processed commodity products. Taking this world position, Canada may be "adding value" to its bank accounts, but it is at the expense of our culture identity. We should be making our own goods in our own way with our own materials.

Typical value-created products

Ironically, medium-sized office furniture manufacturers in Canada (Global, Keilhauer, Krug, Nienkämper, Smed, Teknion, etc.), which furnish the skyscrapers of global corporations, are successful through hiring professional designers and instilling more sustainability into their factories and products. Now, more domestic furniture manufacturers have to create value in their sector. VCR is here to help.